ccx020@cck.coventry.ac.uk (James Nash) (12/05/90)
I wrote: >When running Norton Disc Doctor (from v5.0), I came across a very >strange error message. Norton claimed to have "received" a message from >the boot sector that went... > > Your disk is knackered! > > HA HA!! Well, my suspicions have been calmed and I can say with 99% certainty that this is _not_ a virus. Thanks for all the replies I received which were helpful and prompt; particularly Tris Orendorff. This list deserves its good reputation. The "knackered" message was put on my PC (I believe) by one of my fun-loving colleagues in the custom message box that NDD II now has. The machine that was trashing the disks that produced the error is simply broken. I can be (99%) certain that this is not a virus as I have been using checksumming programs and string-searchers and neither have shown anything over the past couple of weeks. I could not find the "knackered" text anywhere on my hard disk after re-installing Norton (which I did early on, i.e. I have never found it). All these from a clean DOS disk too. Apologies to Peter Norton for suspecting his package. I also wrote: > P.S. As far as I know, "knackered" is a peculiarly English swear word. > Is it prevalent in America??!? Well, I found out that Australasia knows it but America doesn't. My favourite suggestion for a 'nasty' message was "Your disk is toast!" (especially the way I cook my toast). - -- James Nash, Computing Services, Coventry Polytechnic, England ccx020@uk.ac.cov.cck